Work, works. Especially on the potty.

"Work, works"  That is my husband's tag line to his business, Fit Club.  My kids, friends, and I love to use this line when joking but that's what I am going to write about this morning as it pertains to early childhood.  Many people ask questions like, 'why is my child not potty trained?'  'why isn't little Johnny behaving properly?'  'why does she have so many cavities?'  The answer is usually not that deep.  We don't have to go into genetics, or some dramatic story of a toothbrush nightmare but if we look at how you've been working on brushing their teeth (morning, noon, night), going to the potty on a potty not in a diaper (again, morning, noon, night), or following through with behaviors with little Johnny (morning, noon, night and all the inbetweens) it's simple to see that those parents who work on those skills all day, everyday have the evidence that work, works.

At Gonzaga University I was given lots of opportunities to take, see, and analyze data.  During some time in the Gonzaga Preschool I was able to take data on potty training with the group of boys attending.  My professor's at Gonzaga were brilliant at letting me know and proving to me that if someone with a very low IQ can learn to go to the potty when needed, wipe, and wash hands so can a normal developing child who shows interest in the potty.  That to me was all I needed to see the challenge. 

The book we used at Gonzaga was simple, Toilet Training in less than a day by Azrin & Fox.  The book was exactly as my professors had discussed you can teach any child how to use the potty with the proper work.  Because as I said before work, works.  The boys in our Gonzaga preschool left potty trained and I left feeling quite confident until a few years later when two of my awesome professors came to stay with me in Ohio from Washington for a Applied Behavior Analysis conference at The Ohio State University.  When setting up the arrangements on the phone with one of my favorite professors, she asked, "Mitchell is potty trained right?"  and I choked on my words and said, 'um, he's only 19 months and she replied, "I'm sure he will be by the time we get there."  And that was a helpful phrase to get me going into my early childhood education roots and pull out my beloved book, my notes, and start the potty training journey with my own son Mitchell at 20 months. These are my notes that I took and wrote while re-reading the How to Toilet Train in less than a day book and I took notes while I actually did the training.  This day was one of the best in my life because I felt like when my husband came in the door at 5:30 with Mitchell's Bob the Builder Underwear I had used my priceless education at Gonzaga to perfection and when my professors came the following week, that too felt awesome!